Quick care card
Use this card as a starting point. Always check whether your aquarium is stable enough for sensitive species.
Difficulty
Easy
Behavior
Grazes surfaces; shelter remains necessary.
Feeding
Check added food and food on grazing surfaces.
Breeding
Freshwater development; colour consistency is not guaranteed.
Best match
Keepers able to follow the selected strain and colony
Important
Colour is not a health test. During sudden behavioural change or losses, first check water quality, oxygen provision and recent additions.
Care in practice
The colour form has no separately established water recipe. Use supported Neocaridina husbandry guidance and compare conditions with the offered stock. A trade name or colour grade does not establish extra tolerance.
Background and identification
Comparing blue names
| Name | What to check |
|---|---|
| Blue Dream | Often dark blue to nearly blue-black with fairly strong coverage. |
| Blue Velvet | Variable trade usage: assess the actual batch rather than expecting one fixed shade. |
| Blue Jelly | Usually pale blue and clearly translucent; may come from different lines than dark blue animals. |
This site previously described Velvet as both lighter and darker than Dream. A fixed ranking is unreliable. Compare the actual animals in the same light and ask about parents and variation among offspring.
A pale blue animal is not necessarily ill. During sudden colour loss accompanied by changed behaviour, also check water and recent changes. Food or an adjusted pH cannot automatically make an unknown strain breed true. Mix blue lines only if varied offspring are acceptable; a colour family chart is not genetic evidence for your animals.
For full care, use the Neocaridina davidi profile. Check water, filtration, food access and space for the colony before buying.
Sources and review
Sources for accepted names, classification and synonyms.
- UF/IFAS: Cherry shrimp, Neocaridina davidi
Identity, direct freshwater development, grazing and colour forms; laboratory timing is not promised for every aquarium.
Sources for water values, temperature and stable care.
- Aquarium Co-Op: Cherry shrimp care
Own husbandry guidance and tankmate experience. Its 22-24 C, pH 6.5-8.5, GH at least 6 and KH at least 2 are attributed practice guidance, not experimentally proven universal safe limits. No guaranteed sex ratio, mandatory mineral addition or fish safety adopted.
Practical sources for setup, feeding, behavior and breeding.
- Garnelenhaus: Blue Jelly oder Blue Dream?
Hobby descriptions and variable use of blue trade names. Not a genetic identification test; blanket crossbreeding guarantees are not adopted.
- Garnelenhaus: Neocaridina colour lines and reported crosses
Named hobby breeding observations, including variable offspring. No universal Mendelian ratios, guaranteed line purity or certainty of mixed-species ancestry adopted.